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CMHC Releases additional foreign ownership data

CMHC releases additional foreign ownership data The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation released information on foreign ownership in one major market in a bid to address “data gaps”

Foreigners own 1.3% of homes in Montreal and 4.9% in downtown Montréal, according to the CMHC’s latest Housing Market Insight Report which focused exclusively on foreign investment rates in the Quebec city.

The presence of foreign investors in the Montréal real estate market is relatively low and concentrated in the condominium segment, especially in the central sectors of the Montréal area,” Francis Cortellino principal, market analysis at CMHC said. “These results, presented at a round table on foreign investment organized by CMHC, were corroborated by several industry players.”

The Crown Corporation surveyed condo managers in the greater Montréal area, asking them to provide the number of units in their buildings owned by foreigners.

And while additional foreign ownership statistics will certainly be welcomed by industry players, even the CMHC acknowledges potential issues with this specific data.
“The data provided by the respondents could be approximate in some cases. The presence of foreign owners could therefore be overestimated or underestimated,” CMHC said in the report. “Some respondents had a register with the addresses where condominium owners could be reached. Such registers could help determine the number of owners with an address outside of Canada, in other words, foreign owners.”
The CMHC noted foreign owners could use a local address for correspondence.

This latest report follows previously released data on foreign ownership in Toronto and Vancouver.